Entering into the World Race has been an incredible leap outside of my comfort zone. Everything about it has been outside of my realm of normality, but this is not something that caught me by surprise. From the moment I started filling out the World Race application long ago, I knew I would throw my life into a chaotic motion that would challenge me, but more importantly, cause me to grow. With that said, I had a strange mixture of excitement to see the world, as well as a terrified sense of the unknown that encompasses life on the Race. So, as you can imagine, my nerves were heightened when I learned what my team’s ministry would be in month 1, the very first thing we would do on the Race: the Unsung Heroes ministry.
What is the Unsung Heroes ministry? Well, in a nutshell, my team looks for local ministries in the country to connect Adventures In Missions with, so that in the future they may have more ministry contacts to send Racers to. Essentially, we have no ministry host, no planned ministry for us to work with, and no place given to us to stay. We are on our own. It was intimidating to learn that this would be our first ministry, but I knew this would be an opportune time to trust and rely on God to bring people into our path and rely on Him for ways to find ministries.
The first few days of Unsung Heroes ministry is dedicated to training, so on our first official day of the Race, we went through our training, then hit the streets of Quezon city. One thing that my team and I learned on this first day in the Philippines is that we stand out. I mean, STAND OUT. So much so, that we are literally stared at by everyone everywhere we go. It was weird. However, we started to get used to it. By day 2 in the Philippines, we had grown accustomed to being stared at, honked at by men driving by, yelled at, and constantly told how beautiful we were by complete strangers. Children would giddily follow us on the streets, and some eventually worked up the courage to ask to get their picture taken with us. It felt as if we were celebrities. On this second day of Racer life, after an encounter with a sweet little girl in the mall who wanted a “selfie” with us, we were reminded that this is NOT what it is all about. As we walked up the stairs to cross a bridge over an incredibly busy street, we saw a man holding his daughter, and our hearts and happiness dropped.
This man had no money, and there was something clearly wrong with his daughter. It was heart wrenching to see, and we gave him some of the food we had just bought, then reluctantly started to walk away. What else could we do? Well…one other thing. Something that was in all of our minds and finally spoken out by one of our team members…”lets go pray for him”. As I mentioned before, we completely stand out here and are noticed everywhere we go, so I can only imagine what it looked like to those passing by to see the six of us gathered around this man and his daughter in prayer.
Nothing miraculous happened, but maybe all that man needed that day was the love of Christ shown by strangers, and the knowledge that there are people out there who care. A few days have passed since then, and in the hustle and bustle of life in Quezon City, I haven’t been able to see if he’s around. There is no way of knowing if we had any impact on him. However, one thing I think we all learned that day on the bridge is to not take for granted the time we have left in the city. Even though in Unsung Heroes month, our mission is to seek out ministries for AIM, we are still given the opportunity to show the love of Christ to those around. Even though the idea of street ministry terrifies me, it is still form of ministry, and one that should not be overlooked. For who knows the impact that can be made on someone just by praying for them and showing that there is a God out there who cares and loves them.
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